Recently, two family members, with different addresses and phone numbers, were called by someone claiming to be a Microsoft Technician who informed the targets about problems with Windows on their PCs. These “Out of Area” calls had been coming in for several days, and usually we don’t answer numbers we don’t recognize. However, guards were let down and the family member in my house (FM) answered the call. When the caller, in broken English, said that he needed to “verify” the individual's password, I started waving my hands in the air and mouthing the word “Scam!” to FM.

FM had already caught on and asked the caller how he knew that this particular computer was having problems. Next came some garbled, undecipherable reply, at which point FM refused to give out any more information and in fact turned the conversation around. FM wanted to know the name of the person he was talking to and a phone number he could call to verify the caller’s identity. It took another five minutes to pry the information out of the caller, but he did supply FM with a name and number. The conversation dragged on another ten minutes as FM was again pressured to do what the caller was asking. The conversation then ended with FM saying, “I’m not giving you any information, until I check things out.” FM never bothered to call that number, but the persistent caller phoned back that night. At this point, FM bluntly said, “I don’t want to talk to you”, and hung up. All things considered, it took twenty minutes of his time, and a lot of “no’s” to get rid of this guy. Should you get such a call, do me a favor, and don’t answer, ever.

A recent press release from Market Watch announced a disturbing new study which indicates that nearly six million kids and adults in the U.S. are inappropriately sharing identity information. In other words, a significant portion of identity theft wouldn’t happen if the victim wasn’t enabling the thief, which leads to another disturbing point. The study also found that approximately 500,000 children have had their identities stolen by a parent. Worse, about two to three million seniors have been victimized by their own adult children!

Needless to say, this type of betrayal can cause irreparable damage emotionally and psychologically, never mind financially. In these tough times, stealing from one’s own family is becoming all too common. To read more about this study, go to http://www.marketwatch.com/story/id-analytics-study-finds-six-million-us-parents-and-children-inappropriately-sharing-identity-information-2011-09-20

If the links don’t work from here, simply paste them into your browser.

THE OPPOSITE OF DARK, http://bit.ly/i983XE

FATAL ENCRYPTION, http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl

TAXED TO DEATH, http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n